The Golden Dawn is not a bunch of Nazis

There is a move afoot within the Golden Dawn community to liberate the name Golden Dawn from a deluded bunch of Greek Nazis who, in the popular mind, have taken it over.

In actual fact this confusion has come from the fact that the Western Press have translated the name of the Nazi political party Chrysi Avgi.The reason is probably that Fox broadcasters can’t pronounce Greek.

The group, which is xenophobic, homophobic, and misogynistic has a few things going for it.It moves into deprived towns in Greece and offers food and community services to Greek nationals who otherwise would starve.This is the same tactic used by the Muslim Brotherhood.When Greek’s economy picks up, the group will fade away, fortunately its leader Nikolaos Michaloliakosis about as charismatic as a road accident.

However the group has been linked to what the Greek Orthodox Church calls a “rise in paganism” Seraphim, the bishop of Piraeus, spoke publicly of the paganistic dimension of the Greek Golden Dawn.

This would be news toChrysi Avgi as it is very proud of its Greek Orthodox links, something the church should be ashamed of.

But the danger is that the view might be accepted by the Western Press and the Nazi Golden Dawn might forever be linked to that of the magical one.

Already a Google search for the name Golden Dawn is more likely to result in political finds rather than occult ones. It is only a matter of time before right-wing nutjobs start applying to orthodox golden dawn groups looking for a spiritual dimension for their backward politics.

Irish Blueshirts supported by Yeats

It is not as if the Golden Dawn does not have a few neo-nazi skeletons in its closet.n the 1930s Yeats lent his support to the openly fascist Irish Blueshirt movement, led by Eoin O’Duffy, a former IRA Chief of Staff who had become Police Chief of the Irish Free State. The Blueshirts aped Mussolini’s Blackshirts and Hitler’s Brownshirts, down to the same uniforms, the same stiff-armed salute and the same greeting: ‘Hail O’Duffy!’ Yeats wrote three marching songs for the movement which sent a 700-strong contingent to fight for Franco’s Fascist uprising against the Spanish republic in the Spanish Civil War of 1936-39.

The much-admired Maud Gonne was a big fan of Hitler and the Nazis, and her daughter Iseult even hid a German parachutist in her home during the second world war.

As I revealed in my book King over the Water, Samuel Mathers’ closest friends included members of the French Synarch movement and it was likely that the “politics” he was involved with was of that movement. The Synarchs came close to power under the Vichy government in Paris. I personally think that it was these Right Wing links which caused the end of the first Golden Dawn. Yeats had left the Golden Dawn by that point in his career.

The far-right is attracted to the perceived elitism of occultism as well as the secrecy and dressing up.Because of their conservatism, masonic groups often have to watch out for Neo-nazis trying to use them as recruiting grounds.

Mussolini’s favourite occultist, Julius Evola

Normally such types quote Plato’s Republic as occult justification for their politics. Plato called for a government run by an elite team of philosophers who did not work for money but ran the country on philosophical principles. As I wrote here Mussolini’s favourite occultist, Julius Evola took this idea a stage further.One of the things I find alarming about this period in occult history is Evola is being dusted off and being presented as an occult genius.It is something I put down the Right seizing an economic opportunity to peddle its nazi manifesto to the esoteric world again.

But lets be clear about this.

The ideas of the Far Right (and left for that matter) are alien to occultism, mysticism and magic. If you find any of these ideas attractive, you cannot be a viable member of the Golden Dawn. You might learn a few techniques, but you are forever locked out from discovering the real secrets.

Why is this?

The Central doctrine behind real occultism is that the universe is an expression of the One Thing.Therefore none of the beliefs of the Far Right tally with that.

The Golden Dawn system of magic is never about extremes, it is always to do with balance. The extreme politics of the Far Right and Left are Qlippothic within Golden Dawn philosophy.

One race cannot be superior to another, one religion cannot be better than another, each human has its function within creation.You cannot use violence against another person because they reflect an aspect of the Divine and you are doing it to yourself.Nor can you blame them for your problems.If immigrants really are taking jobs, a more human approach is to make sure that their country of origin is a better place to live.People rarely leave their country for the fun of it. If your country is fucked, then do something about it don’t blame your local Jew or African.

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12 thoughts on “The Golden Dawn is not a bunch of Nazis”

The point is that they want to or pretend to conect themself to the ancient greeks. However, Ihave never heard them calling themself pagan or claiming to prform pagan rituals other than some gathering around a big fire stuff. Same goes for the German neonazis. They occupy theancient symbols like Thor’s Hammer, talki g about the gods of “our”forefathers but in fact do not have a clue about paganism or any real rituals other than some made up summer solstice nonsense. The result however is that one can not use any of the ancient symbols without been seen as being one of these nazi idiots. But also here I never heard themclaiming to be pagan or follow a pagan path…

Chrysi Avgi are Greek nationalists who are proud to embrace their own ancient Greek heritage that the Greeks have inherited.

Are you aware of the role of the 300 Spartans, 700 Thespians, and other Greeks who knowingly gave up their lives for the defence of the Greek homeland against Persians at Thermopylae ? Are you aware of the fall of Constantinople/Greece beginning 1453 to the Ottoman Empire and the revolution beginning about 400 years later (1821) leading to the Greeks/friend-of-Greeks ridding themselves fo the Ottoman occupation ?These ancient/modern themes, etc. are what Chrysi Avgi (termed “Golden Dawn” in the west) celebrate; the “big fire stuff” you mentioned. The nationalist Greeks are full aware of their theological past (pre-christian/christian), their philosophical/scientific/etc.past are are proud to remind people of it.

Remember “pagan” is a derogatory word and you should know better when you attempt to use that word. Better to consider terrms like Hellenes, phil-Hellenes, non-Greeks, etc.

An intelligent person would never connect Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, etc. with the “pagan” inference … it implies a lack of respect and much foolishness …. or contempt for the ancient Greek contribution in “jump-starting” western civilization.

Nick, thank you for bringing this up for a second time. The situation in Greece is really sad at the moment. A few members of the only Golden Dawn group made huge efforts and translated Regardie’s black brick in Greek. Needless to say that the publisher was so affair to publish it and it got its place in the bookselves only recenty. Although the introduction of the Greek version makes it very clear that Golden Dawn has nothing to do with the political party, still there is great confusion. Also this guy Seraphim, who is in open war against masonry, recently gave an interview and he made the situation even worse. He linked the political party with Yeats and he even mentioned Crowley, in a bad way of course…

I agree that we need to be shoulder to shoulder on this issue, and to make very clear to the outside world that the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, and magical schools who work under other names, have no connection whatsoever with either right wing nor left wing movements. On behalf of the Hermetic Order of the Temple of Starlight I want to emphasize that we are a part of a movement whose aim is to bring light and harmony into the world, and to that end equality and human dignity of the utmost importance. So yes, I wholeheartedly support the message of Donald Michael Kraig!

I remember reading early on, that all real religions and magickal orders are based upon the 33 Elemental/Planetary/Zodiacal/Sepirothic degrees. I also remember that the Golden Dawn (then Crowley) revealed this secret openly. Has anyone else noticed, that in contemporary occultism (including even Masonry these days) that there is a push to disregard, even discredit the 33 degrees? To me, this is just another example of the reinterment of the 33 back to secrecy. If you doubt, then tell me why “The Ritual Magic Manual” is out of print..? At 600 to 900USD, you would think that the author could use the dough, no? (it went out of print, never to be published again, after he became a Mason)…. As a solitary, Ive watched y’all flame, flame, flame, while constantly and continually burying the 33…. At this point, its the only thing about the Golden Dawn that Im not embarrassed about.

I only know of one individual in the GD who head a GD group and dressed up in a Nazi uniform outside of a Californian University and banged on about Nazi Christians and how they were misunderstood. His drivers license photo at the time had him wearing a Hitler mo and hair style. Interesting enough the same individual projected this Nazi to other GD members. in a series of blog posts. The photos published of this are very telling. .Perhaps he was off his meds on those occasions?

Thank you for clearing this up! As I found in the link below, and others, misguided conspiracy theorists have pounced upon this one: as if Hermeticism needs to acquire an even worse pop-culture reputation! http://golden-dawn-robert-zink-chic-cicero.blogspot.com/?m=1People are so damn ignorant : no wonder occult orders would rather remain “secret ” as an alternative to throwing pearls of esoteric wisdom before the swine that are the paranoid masses. Anyway, thanks for clearing up this important misconception.

“The ideas of the Far Right (and left for that matter) are alien to occultism, mysticism and magic. If you find any of these ideas attractive, you cannot be a viable member of the Golden Dawn. You might learn a few techniques, but you are forever locked out from discovering the real secrets.”

This is one of the most thoroughly ridiculous things I’ve heard in a while, especially given that you go on to contradict it by saying that the Golden Dawn doesn’t judge people by religion (applied philosophy effectively) and that everyone has a function in creation. Does that function stop then when someone subscribes to a non-egalitarian point of view? Are “the secrets” reserved only to people who don’t challenge (and I mean *really* challenge) what we think?

The historical (as opposed to mythical roots) of “occultism, mysticism and magic” are in Platonism. Any other tradition (including Kabbalah, Gnosticism, Hermetism), as a matter of concrete historical fact, derives from Plato and those he influenced. On what grounds are you then going to dispense with Plato’s political philosophy? What’s your philosophical justification for taking from his ideas what you like and then rejecting what you don’t like, beyond it not sitting well with the egalitarian outlook that society has given to you?

Far from the “Far-Right” and “occultism” being alien to each other; they both come from the same place.